Student protests close hundreds of French high schools

At least 400 French high schools closed Friday as student protests over classroom conditions spread across the country. Fires damaged schools, students clashed with police, and the education minister urged parents to keep their children away from demonstrations.

Of France’s 3,700 high schools, 560 reported protests or disruptions, according to the Ministry of National Education. The movement began in the Paris area last week and has since spread nationwide. Students have blocked entrances, lit fires and faced off with police, who have used tear gas at some demonstrations.

Students are calling for smaller classes, more teachers and better facilities. “We are 35 per class, we don’t have enough chairs in classrooms, the one-hour lunch break [is too short] for everyone to get food,” Kesia, 15, told Reuters in the Paris suburb of Pantin, according to Al Jazeera.

Outside a central Paris high school, Simon, 15, described going a year without a science teacher. “We don’t have any textbooks,” he said, according to CBS News. “And still, we’re the lucky ones. It’s even worse in the suburbs.” Students have also complained of long school hours, overheated classrooms and dilapidated buildings. Some carried placards reading, “We have a future to build, not to endure.”

Fire damaged the entrances of two Paris high schools Friday, and firefighters were called to extinguish the blazes. The BBC reported that a school’s main hall in Nantes was destroyed by fire Thursday. Education Minister Edouard Geffray said more than 100 high schools had suffered “severe damage.”

Geffray told BFMTV that at least 170 students and 65 staff members, including 40 school principals, had been injured since the protests began. According to the BBC, the government said around 300 police officers and firefighters had been treated for injuries. Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin said roughly 2,000 people had been taken into police custody; CBS News reported his statement that “90% of whom were minors.”

The government says students’ grievances are legitimate but has condemned the violence. Geffray said “the high school student movement is being held hostage by ultra-violent fringe groups.” He urged parents to keep children away: “What matters now is ensuring our children are no longer out on the streets, because they are in danger.” Darmanin said he had asked prosecutors to hold parents liable for damage caused by their children and make them “pay for repairs.”

Students and rights advocates have raised concerns about police tactics. “It makes us even angrier — the police have no right to hit us or use tear gas on us,” Lola, 16, said outside a high school in Rennes. Amnesty International called images of students being assaulted by law enforcement “extremely alarming,” adding: “They must be protected, not beaten with batons.”

The protests coincide with a public-sector strike over government budget plans. The government has accused the hard-left France Unbowed party of being behind the student movement, an allegation senior party official Manuel Bompard dismissed as a “conspiracy theory.” Geffray said he planned to meet with education unions and student associations to seek a dialogue.